Souls Connected
by Funkywatermelon
Summary: This is a very special, limited time story that will bind together Ice Age and the upcoming Ice Age 2... Manny and Ellie are both lonely and are both going through somewhat adjacent thoughts, read this story to see how close they already are to each other
1. Chapter 1: Lonely Ellie Lonely Manny

Hi everyone! This is Funky Watermelon's assistant! And Guess what? I LOOOOVE Ice Age… It's my favorite movie, and since the new movie is coming out soon, I thought, OH, what the heck! I will write a story (THE FIRST STORY WITH ELLIE IN IT! BOO YAH!) This story connects the first Ice Age movie to the second Ice Age movie… sooooo… here goes!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Ice Age movies, Blue Sky Studios does, trust me, if I did, Ice Age 2 would be out already!

Souls Connected Chapter 1: Lonely Ellie, Lonely Manny:

Ellie:

Her name was Ellie, and she was a Wooly Mammoth. Sure, during this era of the Ice Age, Mammoths were expected to travel in herds, find mates and, well, have babies. There were several reasons that Ellie's only herd were a pair of opossums named Crash and Eddie… but the main one was that she truly believed that she was an opossum like them. Her favorite things to do were climb trees, hide under rocks and forage for food. She also believed that Crash and Eddie were her brothers… You see, her Mammoth family had abandoned her at birth, leaving her in a clearing to die, when an opossum family found her and decided to raise her as their own.

Ellie looked at her reflection in a nearby river, tears filled her eyes as she remembered her opossum mother who would comfort her and tell her that she was beautiful no matter what. But, unfortunately… she had been killed by a Saber Tooth Tiger (A.N. NOT DIEGO!) earlier on the trip. She looked around, she wanted nothing more than to find someone like her, preferably a male, who she could talk to and whom she could spend time with. The only thing that kept her going on her 28 day trip to Acorn Valley was the hope that she would find someone like herself there…. But she shook her head, telling herself that she was, in fact, the only creature left like herself.

Little did she know, there was another, and he was on the opposite side of the valley, traveling with his own friends…

Manny:

Manny groaned, this was the 78th time Sid had sung "100 dandelions in the field" today, and it was driving both him and Diego insane.

"SID!" Diego groaned angrily "How many times do you plan to sing that song today?"

"Dunno" The air headed sloth replied, then continued singing….

"As nice as your singing voice is Sid" Manny reasoned sarcastically "The song kind of got old after the 5th time you sang it."

"Come to think of it," Sid replied, "My voice is starting to get a little tired. Hey, do you guys think we can stop for the night soon?... Guys... GUYS?" The others did not respond, they were looking ahead at a rock that, oddly enough looked like two Mammoths with their trunks entwined.

"That's an odd formation" Diego said as he walked up to it… "I've never seen anything like it; do you think the people carved this?"

Manny did not reply, he was just looking at the rock with a saddened look on his face…. The formation reminded him of his old family… his beautiful mate, Millie (A.N. name made up!) and wonderful son Wally (A.N. name made up!) who both died simultaneously in a landslide. He shook his head to get the memories out of his brain.

"I'm not sure Diego" He responded "Maybe… we should probably get going… we have 38 days until we get there… we lost about 5 days with Pinky… and we needed 5 extra days to make up for those."

Sid groaned, grabbed a handful of dandelions and jumped onto Manny's back, where he had been riding for a majority of this voyage.

"Hey, Manny." He asked, "Why am I sitting on here… is it because I'm special?"

"No" Manny replied "It's because if you don't, you will get lost, and if you get lost, you will probably die..."

Sid was quiet for about 5 minutes after this, and then started to sing again…

"100 dandelions in the field... 100 dandelions… pull one out; pass it about, 99 dandelions in the field..."

Manny was not hearing this however, he was still thinking about Millie…. He missed her a lot. Diego had told him this morning that he should find another girl… another mate… but he had kicked the idea out of his head… everyone he had ever had in his family had died.. and he did not want the same thing to happen to anyone else… he wouldn't be able to take the pain… he shook these thoughts out of his head and continued walking… listening to Sid's singing as he went…

"97 dandelions in the field… 97 dandelions… pull one out; pass it about, 96 dandelions in the fieeeeeeeeld!"

Well, what did you think? Was it good? This is my first Ice Age story, so I am quite nervous about it, I may or may not update it in-between now and the premier of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown on the 31st of March to continue this story… the ultimate conclusion of this story is supposed to be the new movie… and for those curious... PINKY is the baby... they called him that at least 5 times in the movie, so that is what I have named him! Let me know if I should add on a new chap (Oh, and Ellie IS going to be in the new movie!)

Taffyabc (A.K.A. Funky Watermelon's assistant)


	2. Chapter 2: Painful Memories

Hello everyone it's me again! Before I start this chapter, let me address a few problems I had with the first one…It seems as though you were confused when Diego referred to the human baby (Roshan) as "Pinky", well, I assure you that I knew what I was doing, and I DID mean to put "PINKY" as his name. Yes, I am aware that Roshan is his actual name, BUT he is known as Pinky to Manny, Diego and Sid.

The second thing is that I called Ellie's brothers Opossums when they are really just Possums, I am sorry for that error!

With that taken care of and cleared up…. You can now sit back, relax and enjoy;

Souls Connected Chapter 2; Painful Memories:

Ellie:

Ellie let out a sigh of exhaustion as she lay down on the ground and watched her brothers roll around in a dung heap. It had been a LOOOOONG day, and she was quite tired. Usually, she would rest by climbing a tree, wrapping her tail around a branch and hanging herself upside down, like a Possum. But this time, she just, didn't feel like that would do the job.

She smiled as she saw Crash throw a dung-ball in Eddie's face. She used to play this game with them when she was little, but not anymore. She would always get dirty and stinky and her mother hated having to clean her immense body. Therefore, one time, when she got VERY dirty, her mother forbade her from playing it again. Ellie smiled as she remembered her Possum mother, she was always so nice and kind to her. She always knew exactly what to say to cheer Ellie up. The moment that stuck out most to Ellie was when they competed in the Local Mother-Daughter Olympics once when she was five… They lost of course, because Ellie was too big to do the piggy-back. Her mother had come right up to her, hugged her trunk (for the other parts of her body were far too large to hug fully) and told her the words that she would always remember.

"There's nothing wrong with being big boned"

Their mother had started on the journey with them, but had been killed by a saber-tooth…. Ellie remembered how hard it was to continue on, she eventually had to pick her brothers up and start walking.

"CRASH!" She yelled as she caught sight of her dare-devil brother getting ready to jump off a 10 foot cliff into the dung heap… "DON'T YOU DARE JUMP! THERE ARE ROCKS ALL AROUND THE HEAP, YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF!" Crash just laughed at her, and jumped anyway… Ellie ran to grab him with her trunk, but missed, luckily, he DID fall into the dung heap… she sighed, wiped beads of perspiration off of her forehead and told the twins to get cleaned up.

As they were getting cleaned up, she looked at the sunset… 'So romantic' she thought to herself… 'too bad I don't have anyone to share it with' She looked down sadly… most of the girls she had played with or knew when she was little had by now found mates… not her… she was all alone in this world, except for her brothers… tears started to form in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them out. It wouldn't do for her brothers to see her cry; they always nagged her on until she admitted what was wrong. She looked up at the stars one last time, and walked over to the tree where her brothers, having cleaned themselves up, had now gone to sleep.

"22 Days" she told herself quietly, "Just 22 days left and then we will get there." She then got herself into the tree and fell asleep.

Manny:

_It was a nice and sunny afternoon… and Manfred was exuberant… it was his and his mate Millie's 3 year anniversary today… and he was eager to see her. He had been on a trip with some of the other guy Mammoths to gather food and shelter logs for the long winter approaching, and as luck had it, he would be arriving home today, and neither Millie nor his 6 month old son Wallace knew. He smiled as he thought of his son, it had been absolute torture waiting for 22 months for him to arrive and when he finally came, he was so proud. He looked over to his side and saw Millie gathering flowers to decorate their cave. Manfred had a mischievous grin on his face as he very quietly snuck up to her._

_"I can see you Manfred" she said smiling when he got about 5 feet away, then turned around, and gave him a look of great affection as she locked her trunk with his. Manfred's heart melted, he loved Millie more than anything else in this world, and nothing made him feel happier than when she locked her trunk with his. He unlocked the trunks and started to say 'Happy Anniversary' to her, when Wallace came running up,_

_"DADDY! YOU BACK!" He yelled ecstatically as he ran up to his parents and wrapped his tiny trunk around his father's massive one. Manfred in exchange wrapped his trunk around his son's neck. "Daddy, you come play with me?" Wallace asked hopefully, Manfred gave his son a huge smile._

_"Of course buddy, just let me talk to mommy for a few minutes, then you can have me all to yourself." He said kindly as Millie looked on._

_"Ok Daddy!" Wallace said happily as he ran off into the valley to play. Manfred smiled and turned to his mate…_

_"He really loves you, you know." She told him as she, once again, locked her trunk with his._

_"I know… he's a great kid." He told her in response… he could not have been any happier, his life was wonderful. This day just could not get any better… _

_He was right… it couldn't get any better, but it was about to get worse… much, much, worse. Just as Manfred was thinking about how wonderful his life was, Wallace came running up to him and Millie with a terrified look on his face._

_"Mommy, Daddy, HELP! Hunters!" he yelled frantically… Millie looked at Manfred with a terrified expression on her face, he knew what she was thinking, she had had her gorgeous, ivory tusks taken out by hunters… she had managed to escape, but was now pretty much defenseless against any new attackers that came her way. _

_"Millie, you get Wallace out of here, I'll take care of the hunters!" He said bravely as she looked at him with a scared face._

_"Manfred… Don't" She told him, "It's not worth it, just let it be." He looked at her with a determined look on his face and pushed Wallace towards her…_

_"I don't want you two getting hurt, get out of here! I'll find you later!" She regretfully grabbed their son and ran towards the nearby cliff wall… Manfred got ready to defend himself against the hunters, when he heard Millie give a trumpet of fear, he looked back to find her sitting, backed up against the cliff wall, holding Wallace tight in her arms… he then saw the small group of hunters above them on the top of the cliff, holding boulders… He tried to get to them, but the hunters had surrounded him, there was nothing he could do except sound out an alarmed trumpet and watch helplessly as the hunters threw the boulders down the cliff, and onto his family…_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Manny woke up with a start, sweat pouring down his head and breathing heavily… He looked around to find that his friends had gone out to search for food in the late evening, which was one of Diego's favorite activities; Manny enjoyed the activity because Diego usually brought Sid along so that he would be tired the next day and wouldn't annoy them as much. "It was just a dream" he told himself as he weakly stood up, he had this same dream at least once a year, always around the time when the incident happened, as if his old family was wanting him to remember…. He walked out of the cave and onto the small cliff outside of it and looked at the stars above him, and started to reminisce once again;

_The hunters immediately ran away…not wanting to face the wrath of an upset Mammoth… Manfred immediately ran up to Millie and Wallace praying the entire time that they were ok…_

_The sight that he saw when he got there would stay in his memory forever… His son looked like a bloody pulp… two of his four legs was broken, as well as most of his ribs, he also had a very bad gash across his face…_

_"Daddy…" he struggled as tears came out of his face… "It hurts"._

_Manfred tried his best to keep the tears in… but it was to no avail, he gently pulled the rock off of his son, tenderly picked him up with his trunk, and started to rock him. _

_"Man-fred" Millie called weakly from the 2 boulders she was locked under… He very slowly walked over to her, put Wallace down and tried to remove the boulders, but they were too big, he couldn't… the tears came out of his eyes more quickly now and he soon realized that his mate and child were going to die. He gently nudged Wallace close enough to Millie for her to wrap her trunk around him. "My boy" she strained as she held him close… she let the remaining segment of her trunk lock with Manfred's, and he locked the remainder of his around Wallace, praying that somehow, they would get better. Millie looked at Manfred with overflowing eyes… "I love you" she struggled as she closed her eyes for the last time…Manfred's eyes clouded over… she was gone, his Millie, gone… never to be seen again. Millie's trunk slowly unlocked with Manfred's and unwound with Wallace's… Wallace looked at his dad with tearful eyes._

_"Daddy" he asked weakly… "Am I gonna die?" Manfred's eyes overflowed… he held his son close, once again praying that, by some miracle, he could be saved. It was to no avail… All he could do was comfort the young boy as he passed on. Once he realized that his son too had died, Manfred slowly lay him next to his mother and put her trunk around his… hoping that they, at least, could be together…_

_"I love you." He told them both as he tearfully turned around and walked away… he never went to that spot again._

Manny's tears were now flowing freely down his face as he remembered the pain of loosing his family…. He had been alone and grumpy ever since then. He looked up at the sky with his tear-filled eyes…. He missed them, he only wished that he could have them back, but his brain knew better. The rest of his family had died about a year after that from yet another hunter attack. He wiped the tears out of his eyes with his trunk… and took one last look at the full moon before reentering the cave and getting a much needed rest before restarting on his 32 day journey to Acorn Valley. Unbeknownst to him, Ellie was looking at the same moon as she walked with her nocturnal brothers, continuing on their journey…. heading to an adventure that would change the lives of all 6 of these creatures forever.

Well, that's it for this chapter! I don't know about you, but I am EXTREMELLY proud of Manny's side in this chapter! I've always wanted to write my own rendition of that cave painting scene, and now I can! I am EXTREMELLY fond of this and it really gives me more input on that scene (I won't be able to watch it again without crying!) I would like you to notice that I referred to Manny as Manfred during the flashbacks, considering he was probably only known by that name then… it was shortened to Manny once he met Sid. I will try to put up the next chapter soon, maybe next Monday, I dunno… probably whenever I get a new idea! Either way, reply please! I want to know what you thought! Oh, and I checked, the baby IS a boy… it is finalized in the second movie, he refers to the baby as "our son" which means, it was A BOY! Please let me know what you think! I am eager to hear your thoughts!

Taffyabc (A.K.A. Funkywatermelon's assistant)


	3. Chapter 3: Mating Rituals

Hi everyone! First of all, I want to express my unhappiness at the fact that NOONE responded to my last chapter and that kind of upset me some. Oh well, I love this story so much, that I am going to keep working on it until it has 10 chapters! smiles I apologize for falling behind, I was SUPPOSED to update on Monday, but did not feel like it, I am now though, so ha! I was talking to my friend earlier today and she said that reviewing your own story is bad, and that it's a bad use of judgment, so I apologize for that as well! With that all out of the way… Sit back, relax and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age or any of the main characters in this fic, I do however own quite a few of the characters that these guys are gonna talk about! I don't own Dinosaur either.

**Souls Connected Chapter 3: Mating Rituals**

Ellie:

"Ellie!" Crash and Eddie yelled as they ran up to her… "You gotta help us!" Normally, Ellie hated to help her little brothers, but they seemed quite desperate, so she gave in.

"What do you need boys?" she asked.

"Well, I was telling Crash about how Topaz and I were gonna be mates someday, and he started saying that it wasn't true!" Eddie complained as he tried to get Ellie to his side of the argument.

"She never liked you!" Crash responded, "She chose William, remember?" Eddie pouted.

"She DID choose William, Eddie" Ellie told the sad Possum as he sat down on the ground and put on his best pouting face. "Besides all you really did with her was go up and say hi, and once she said hi back, you giggled like a girl and ran off!" Eddie put on an even bigger pout-face and Crash just burst out laughing. Ellie looked at him with a frown on her face. "I don't think it's that funny Crash" she told him "If I remember correctly, the girl you liked, Rose, chose someone else to be her mate too!" Eddie smiled and stuck his tongue out at Crash.

"Was it MY fault that I overdid the flirting?" Crash asked, frustrated that Ellie was on Eddie's side.

"Yes!" Ellie told him, "You were calling her 'hot girl' and just… being totally ridiculous!"

"Like you would know!" her brother shot back, "You've never even HAD a guy, when it was YOUR turn to find a mate, you couldn't find anyone and Cousin Vinnie felt so sorry that he suggested that you two be mates, but then dad had to go and give you guys the whole 'You have to mate for love, or else you will be making the ultimate sacrifice' speech, and he decided to choose someone else!" This statement hit Ellie like a ton of rocks, he was right…she had NEVER been able to get any boy out of their family to find her attractive, Never.

"Will you two just shut up?" she told them quietly as she continued on, trying her best not to cry. The boys caught up to her and Eddie walked up near her face.

"Ellie" he told her, "I think you are VERY pretty, and Crash does too! Those other guys, they're just jerks!"

"Yeah well," Ellie told them "I don't see why you two keep teasing me about this, if I remember correctly a year after I was left alone, you guys were too! Left hanging alone in the tree, while everyone else had found a mate!" (A.N. In my opinion, the possum mating ritual is identical to the lemur one in Dinosaur! Is it just me, or does the way Ellie lived remind you of Aladar from that movie?) Crash and Eddie looked at each other, they remembered how bad they felt that day, they were the only two left in the tree, they looked at their sister… she had been the only one left, in fact, she didn't even get to participate in the event! She had been upset for weeks after that and would not talk to ANY boy for anything. The only comfort she got was from her mom, and she was dead now.

"We're sorry Ellie" Crash told her as he hugged one of her immense front legs, "Can you forgive us?" Ellie smiled down at her brothers as Eddie came over and hugged the same leg.

"I guess I can…" she told them, then her face lit up "Hey!" She told them, "Maybe I can tell you how to act around girls, I'm sure that you could probably find a girl somewhere who was left out too!" The boys smiled, and Ellie did too, she loved it when they were happy, because then they didn't try to bother her or anything of that matter, also, if they did find a girl, she would have some females to hang out with. She looked up at the setting sun and sighed. The weeks after the mating ritual had been the hardest in her entire life, seeing all of her friends finding mates and going off with them, leaving her all alone. She hated it, of course, she could spend time with her mother, grandmother, aunts and female cousins, but that was about it. How she had wanted to hear the words 'You are beautiful' from someone other than her brothers, or any male family member for that matter. She wanted to hear it from someone who she had just met, someone, who was her new friend… someone she could trust. Someone… like her.

She laughed at herself as she picked up her brothers and put them on her back. 'I'm being silly' she thought to herself, 'there is no way that I will ever find someone to love me for who I am, I'm never going to find a mate, I don't know why I even try!' she sighed, 'oh well' she thought, 'I'm only 10 days away now, who knows what could happen!' She smiled as her brothers curled up in her fur for a nap; 'at least I have them' she told herself and went on through the forest, heading towards Acorn Valley and an adventure she would NEVER forget.

Manny:

Manny smiled as he walked along with his friends, even though the dream he had a week ago was still in his mind, he hadn't had another one since, so he figured that he would be ok. They entered this long rock tunnel, As Sid was having fun talking to his echo, Manny noticed that Diego kept looking at the cave paintings on the wall, most of which were of Sabers like himself.

"You see yourself on there Diego?" Manny joked as he smiled at his friend.

"No" Diego replied, "I was just looking at this one right here" He pointed to a certain Saber who did not have long tusks like most of them did. "That's a female." He told his friends. Sid jumped down off Manny's back and looked at the painting.

"Hey Diego" He asked "You seem like a lady's charmer, did you have any girls in your day?" Manny rolled his eyes and kept on walking, leaving Sid to waddle in between his two buddies. Diego followed them and looked at Sid with a 'you shouldn't have asked me that' look.

"No, I didn't actually." He explained "The only female that I ever REALLY knew was my mom. You see, Saber colonies are divided into two packs, the Males and the Females, they meet twice a year, the first one is usually in early spring, and that one is specifically to find mates. In order to be mates, you have to go to the top of a cliff together, and give the loudest roar you can… so that the entire land around can know that you have made a lifetime commitment. Once they find a mate, the two go off together, and have a child. Once the child is born, then the trio stays together as a family until he or she is old enough to join a pack, which is where the second one comes in, that one's usually in the early fall, only the families get together and they divide the children into the assorted packs. The males go in one location and the females go to another location about 5 miles away. There were no mothers allowed at the male's division and there were no fathers allowed at the female's division. A saber stays in their pack for 7 months, then they will go to the mating ritual, it is there that the story starts all over again. My pack was going to go to the ceremony right after we had taken care of the baby… guess that didn't happen." Diego kept on walking without looking at his friends.

"Sorry" Manny told his friend… "I didn't mean to make you miss the ritual"

"It's ok" Diego assured him, "Females are confusing to me anyway"

"I hear that buddy! Wait until you hear my story!" Sid said happily as Manny leaned down and he climbed back aboard. "You see, Sloths are lucky, they all stick together, it's like one big family, a Sloth herd is." He then made sure Manny and Diego were paying attention, and then continued, "Then, once you are old enough you start to flirt with the different girls and try to get one to agree to be your mate. Then, on Mating Day, all the couples get together and then eat the century plant flowers that are provided!" (A.N. Century plants are wildflowers that grow in the southwestern deserts of America, they need about 10 to 50 years to produce a single 30-foot-high flower stalk and after that, they only bloom once every 100 years.) Manny and Diego looked at each other and smirked.

"So Sid," Manny asked "Have you reached YOUR turn to find a mate?"

"Yes I have, as a matter of fact; it was about 2 years ago!" Sid said proudly "Unfortunate as it may seem, the girl I had chosen, decided to go with someone else, so I didn't have anyone available!" Manny laughed at the expected news that Sid had been promptly left out of the mating ritual in his herd. "Hey Manny" Sid told him "What about Mammoths?"

"Yeah" Diego said, "Me and Sid have told about our species' mating rituals, what's yours?" Manny looked down at his feline friend and started to tell.

"Well, like Sloths, Mammoths usually stick in a herd, which is considered to be like their family. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is watching out for everyone else. Like Sabers, they mate by going to the top of a mountain, except instead of roaring, we lock trunks and then make the loudest trumpet we can. However, unlike both of your species, we can mate whenever and whoever we want, as long as they are the same species. Once Mammoths mate, they usually go off on their own, that's what I did with mine, and have a child. Female Mammoths take 22 months to develop a baby (A.N. True fact!) and once that time is done, the child comes, and then the family rejoins with the herd." Manny smiled at his friends, happy to have explained more about his species. They smiled back, happy to know more about him.

As they left the tunnel, Manny's smile disappeared, like him, his friends were alone too, but they had never been able to find someone. He didn't want to tell them, but he wasn't that good with girls either, he had been extremely lucky to have found Millie. He didn't expect to find any other girl who would like him as much as she had. He did want to be happy again, the only issue was… well, he got very nervous when he was in love and was positive that if he did fall in love again, he would be just as bad. He had worked very hard to get Millie, and he wasn't quite ready yet to get someone else. He looked at the setting sun as he set his friends down, 'who knows' he thought 'maybe there is someone out there for me, I'm only 20 days away, it's possible.'

Well, there you go! The third chapter, I would like to say that this story is going to have 10 chapters, 6 like this one, 2 where it's just going to be one group the whole time (that will be when one of the groups arrive at Acorn Valley) 1 authors notice and 1 epilogue. That leads me to the new instructions on how to read this fic, first, watch Ice Age, then read chapters 1-8, then, watch Ice Age 2: The Meltdown and after that read chapters 9-10, chapter 8 is going to take place RIGHT BEFORE Ice Age 2 starts and chapter 10 is going to take place RIGHT AFTER Ice Age 2 ends (It will take to long to copy the whole movie into here!) the 9th chapter will be an author's notice. I am proud to say that this is still the only fic with Ellie in it on this website, and I am extremely proud of this! Thank you, any who read this story and I hope that you will be ready for the Meltdown on March 31st, I know I am! See you next week!

Funkywatermelon's assistant


	4. Chapter 4: Children Are the Future

Hey, Hey, Hey everybody! It's time for chapter four! First, of course, the pre-chapter notifications… first of all, thanks to the two people who reviewed to my story, it really made my day that you enjoyed the chapter, and also, thanks to your suggestions, I will, from now on, double check the spelling and grammar, and also have NO authors notes throughout the story. I did make a mistake in the last chapter however, the girl possum's name was Lily, NOT Topaz! Rose however, was correct. I apologize for any confusion. There will be 2 chapters next week, one of which will be a full Ellie chapter, simply because that will be when she and her brothers arrive at the valley. There will be 3 chapters posted on April 1st, which will be chapters 7-9… a normal chapter, a chapter in which Manny arrives at the valley, and an authors notice. For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, the days that Manny has left is a countdown to how many days until the movie premiers… (Ellie is 10 days ahead of him!) That means that as of right now, we have about 16.3 days left before the premier. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, for it was quite fun to write! Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age, meaning that Manny, Ellie, Sid, Diego, Millie, Wallace (Even though I made their names up) and Crash and Eddie unfortunately, do not belong to me… however, Sophie, Her family, Rose, Lily, Willa (Snow), Billy (Dirt), Stephanie, William and Ellie's lullaby DO belong to me, so HA!

**Souls Connected Chapter 4;**

**Children Are the Future**

Ellie;

It was late evening, and Ellie and her brothers were just preparing to stop for dinner and a quick nap before the nighttime hours of their voyage. Ellie was just happy to stop for a while and rest her legs. She was walking in the woods looking for food when she heard a sound…. It wasn't a threatening sound, it was the sound of crying… she quietly walked towards the sound and was surprised to find…. A pair of possum infants lying next to a tree obviously abandoned. One of the babies was an albino female, with beautiful bright pink eyes and snow-white fur. The other was a normal male with dirt-brown fur all over, and lime green eyes, like Ellie's own.

"Oooh!" she cooed, "Poor things, are you guys alone?" The babies replied by looking at her with sad looks in their faces… Ellie picked them up with her trunk and carried them over to the clearing where she had put the food that she had already found. Once there, the babies started to cry again. It took Ellie about 10 minutes to realize that they were hungry; she searched in the woods, with the infants on her back and after about 5 minutes found two small melons for them to eat. She then took the food to the clearing, put it on the ground, opened it with one of her tusks, and then put the babies down on the ground next to it. Once the babies saw the food, they looked up at Ellie and gave her a big smile as they made clapping motions with their hands. Ellie watched the two babies eat (and play) with their food as she ate… content to see that they were safe. Once they were finished the babies crawled over to her and hugged her trunk. Ellie smiled.

"Hmm," She said thoughtfully "What should I call you two? Crash, Eddie!" She called her brothers, who were at the time playing in a nearby dung heap, and trying to avoid any responsibilities that their older sister might give them with the infants. They came over grumbling as they stood in front of her. "Get yourselves cleaned up, then we can get on our way!" the boys grumbled even more as they dragged themselves over to the nearby pond and washed all the dung off of themselves. Ellie looked down at the babies, who were smiling up at her. "I'll call you Snow" She told the girl of the two, "and you will be Dirt" she told the boy, "You guys aren't too bad." She told them happily "I could get used to you!" she then gently picked them up and put them on her back, once her brothers came up to her all clean, they went on their way.

"Ellie," Eddie asked as they walked on, "Why are you watching those babies anyway?"

"Because," Ellie told him, "They were lost; they needed someone to watch over them. Their parents abandoned them, I don't want some other species to find them and raise them as their own, that'd be kind of weird, don't you agree?"

"Yeah, sure" Crash told his sister, "But don't you think that if the parents find you with their kids, they'd be upset?"

"No." Ellie replied, "No sane parent would leave their babies alone in the woods, it's just evil!"

"I guess you're right." Eddie agreed, "At least let us play with them some!" Ellie sighed,

"Ok, fine, you can play with them some tomorrow, but only with me watching, I don't want you hurting them, the girl's pretty weak!" Ellie told them exasperatingly as she looked over at the full moon, "It's getting late, and we should probably stop for the night."

They stopped in a nearby cave and Ellie laid down so that the babies could sleep in her curled up trunk, there was a problem however, Snow and Dirt did not want to go to sleep.

"Go to sleep you two." She told them admiringly as she watched them play with each other, after a while she saw them yawn, but then they started to cry again. 'What is wrong now?' Ellie thought to herself, then noticed them yawning once again, 'oh, they are tired, no wonder, poor things, they can not get to sleep! Hmmm, what did mom do when I couldn't get to sleep? Oh yeah! She sang me a lullaby! Hmm, how did it go again? Ah! Now I remember! Ok, you two, get ready for bed!' she looked down at the babies with a motherly look on her face and started to sing to them,

"_Go to sleep,_

_Do not be afraid,_

_Your mama is here,_

_To save all your days._

_Your mama does love you,_

_And gives you her care,_

_Without you, my babies,_

_I am hardly there._

_You are all that I live for,_

_You're all that I have,_

_I am so proud of you,_

_You make me so glad._

_Nighttime is approaching,_

_Darkness is near,_

_But when your mama's with you,_

_You've got nothing to fear._

_Dream sweetly darling,_

_Dream of true love,_

_And then it will come to you,_

_My sweet turtledove._

_Go to sleep,_

_Do not be afraid,_

_Your mama is here,_

_To save all your days."_

When she finished, Ellie looked down to find that the babies had, amazingly, fallen asleep! She smiled; her mother had sung that to her as a lullaby when she was an infant, and she had purposely memorized it so that whenever she had any children, she could use it on them. Ellie smiled as the babies snuggled up closer to her fur and she then fell asleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning when she woke up, the babies were still sleeping, "Wake up guys." She told them happily, proud that they treated her as if she was their mother. 'I could REALLY get used to this!' she told herself, 'I definitely wouldn't mind if their parent's never showed up.' Once the babies were up and ready, Ellie washed them off in a nearby pond (Which led to a whole lot of splashing on the babies' part, making Ellie's face completely soaked to the bone) fed them, rounded up Crash and Eddie, then started off on her way to Acorn Valley, happy that she only had 6 days until she would get there. It was around noontime when Ellie decided to stop for lunch, the boys ran off, probably to roll around in another dung heap, when she heard the sound of a possum talking to his mate.

"Don't worry Stephanie, I'm sure we'll find them!" he was saying to his mate, who was crying about something.

"But William!" his mate exclaimed, "They're only one week old! They can't survive without their mom!" Ellie looked down at Snow and Dirt, they were sitting on the ground next to her, playing and rolling around. 'Wait' she told herself, 'those parents are looking for their babies… what if…no, it can not be these two… can it?' She reluctantly picked the babies up and walked over to the couple.

"Excuse me." She told them "I couldn't help but overhear that you were looking for your children," She then held the babies out to them "Are these, by any chance yours?" When they saw the babies, the couples' eyes widened.

"OH!" the mother said happily, and then grabbed the excited children from Ellie's trunk, "My babies! Willa, Billy! You're all right! Oh thank you ma'am, thank you!" she then walked off, holding the babies, cooing at them. The father smiled at Ellie.

"Thank you miss, you have helped us extremely, is there anything we can do for you to express our thanks?" he asked her.

"No" Ellie said smiling, "Just seeing the looks on their faces when they saw you two was enough for me."

"Well, thank you, we will never forget this." William then walked over to his mate, picked up Billy, and started to play with him. Crash and Eddie walked up to Ellie, having seen the entire thing.

"That was SO COOOL!" Eddie said, "Did you see how happy we made those guys?" Ellie smiled.

"I sure did Eddie, I sure did." She then picked the two up, put them on her back and continued on her way, sure she was sad about losing the babies, but then again, they were home. 'Who knows?' Ellie thought to herself, 'Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll find a guy and then we can have children of our own... Maybe' with this thought in mind, Ellie kept on going, knowing she had done something good.

Manny;

Manny sat down in the field, exhausted from hearing Sid sing all morning long, and to make matters worse, he still had 16 long days until they got to the valley! Manny had convinced Diego to take Sid to a nearby dandelion field so that he could eat to his hearts content. (Both Manny and Diego knew, that if Sid ate enough, he would get VERY tired!) He was just about to start to doze off, when he felt something run into one of his rear legs, when he turned around to see what it was, he saw a little girl Start, probably no older than 10 months staring at his immense body, scared stiff. Manny was irritated, but when he saw the look of this young girl, he had to sympathize.

"Hey there" He told her in the nicest voice he could, "What's your name?"

"S-S-Sophie." The girl stuttered.

"Sophie, that's a very pretty name. Tell me Sophie, Why were you running like that?" Manny asked her, noticing that the girl was starting to calm down. Manny was, surprisingly, extremely good with children and loved spending time with the innocent little bundles of joy. Sophie looked up at him, noticing that he had a kindly look on his face and calmed down enough to speak clearly.

"My sisters and I were playing tag." She told him, "I didn't see ya there, sorry!"

"It's perfectly ok!" Manny told her as she smiled at him.

"OOOH!" Sophie said, noticing the necklace that Runar (Roshan's father) had given to Manny on his tusk. "Pretty Necklace!"

"You like it?" Manny asked her, he liked the necklace, sure, but he'd been thinking recently and decided that he would like to continue the tradition of handing it over to another individual.

"Yeah!" Sophie said, still eyeing the necklace, "It's got funny shapes and animals on it! Manny smiled,

"Do you want it?" He asked her kindly.

"Can I?" She asked him excitedly.

"Of course," He said as he held it out towards her, then pulled it back and looked at her with a stern look on his face, "But you have to promise me something." She looked up at him.

"What?" She asked, nervously. Manny looked down at her and gave her a smile that said that he was just teasing her with the stern look.

"You need to give it to someone else if they ever take interest in it, the only rule is that they cannot be able to see you again, they can't be in your family and they have to be a stranger except for that one moment, understood?" He told her.

"I understand!" She told him and squealed with excitement when Manny put the necklace around her neck.

"You look so pretty!" He told her, "Why don't you go show your mom?"

"OK!" She said happily, and then ran to show her mother. Manny smiled at her, and started to remember different things about his old child and mate, he remembered how Millie would always sing a lullaby to Wallace every night before he went to bed, and how beautiful he thought her singing voice was. He thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world when a mother sang her child to sleep. He noticed Sophie and her mother coming up to him.

"Thanks mister!" Sophie said happily.

"You're very welcome" He told her smiling, she ran off to play with her siblings, and her mother walked up to him.

"Thank you very much sir." She told him, smiling, "My little Sophie needs something like this to cheer herself up, she hasn't been much herself since she lost her twin." She said this last sentence with sadness in her eyes and voice.

"Yes, Well" Manny told her, "I understand your pain, I lost a child too, and a mate at the same time. The only advice I can give you is to keep going, pay extra attention to your other children, and you will be better, you'll never really get over the pain, but you'll be able to put it aside for some moments of happiness." The mama Start smiled at him, thanked him, and then walked off to her family.

Manny smiled at them… he was getting better and better as time went on, he didn't know if it was the fact that he had friends to talk to, or that he was starting to get used to life without a true family again, or whatever, but he was, slowly and surely, getting better.

Manny wouldn't mind having another child someday, he wasn't ready for one right then, but maybe… within the next 5 years. Of course, he didn't know where ANY mammoths were, he didn't even know for sure if there WERE any others…. In Sid's head, he was the only one left. Manny wasn't sure, but he opted to forget the idea and live the rest of his life to the fullest, even if it was going to be alone… he'd find a way to be satisfied…. And happy at the same time…. he saw Diego coming up to him, and laughed in spite of himself when he noticed that Sid was fast asleep on his back. The three friends continued on their journey, 16 days until they would get to the Valley, they were getting closer every day.

Whew! I think that may be the longest chapter yet! (I'm pretty sure that Ellie's section is actually the longest this time, that's a first, ALL RIGHT!) Some of you are telling me that these stories are making you like Ellie more and more… and that makes me happy, because that is my goal with this story! My goal with this story is to create at least 5 Manny/Ellie fans before the 2nd movie comes out, by only sharing stories that hint how well they would work together… I know in the movie that they argue frequently, but at the end… its true love! The lullaby that Ellie sang was written and composed by me, I unfortunately am not able to post the tune up here (ooh, an interactive story! You get to make up your own tune!) But, oh well! My 2nd goal with this story is to introduce you to Ellie and her brothers before they make their worldwide first appearance on March 31st in theaters near you…. I'm also trying to reintroduce you to Manny and his pals as well. Thank you, once again for reading this story, and I compliment you if you actually are reading this sentence! Please Reply, for that helps me decide what to change in my stories, and what works and what doesn't work! Also, I am thinking of creating a Manny/Ellie C2 community, if there are at least 5 Manny/Ellie fics (OTHER THAN ANY OF MINE!) Posted a month after the movie's release (May 1st) then I will create it! Thanks again for reading, and have a nice week! Remember, stay away from the geysers please, you don't want to die a boiling hot death!

Taffyabc (A.K.A. Funkywatermelon's assistant)


	5. Chapter 5: Trains of Thought

Hey everyone! I have good news, there are no changes I will make in this upcoming chapter, AND there are no mistakes that were made in the last one! Yay! Also, I want to thank the ONE reviewer I had for the past chapter, thank you, you really made my day! With that all taken care of, and nothing else to fix and take care of…. Sit back, relax and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age, meaning that most of these characters are not mine…. I do however own a stuffy of Ellie… so SHE IS MINE… BWA HA HA HA HA! '.

**Souls Connected Chapter 5; Trains of Thought,**

Ellie:

Ellie walked on, a semi-frown on her face….. The weather was cold, dirty, and wet, wet, wet! Crash and Eddie had continuously asked if they could stop but she (being the stubborn creature that she is) had insisted that they keep on going so that they could get to the valley on time, and on schedule. The only thing that was keeping her going right now was the fact that she would get there in a day…. And she was REALLY looking forward to it… the valley was said to be the most beautiful place on the planet, green as far as the eye could see…. Probably because it was completely surrounded by geysers, these geysers held back a gigantic frozen lake. It was known as the hole of paradise, the only bad parts of it, was the fact that the valley contained many rocks (which made it a very popular home for vultures… the main predators in the valley) and it contained the largest geyser field on the planet. Other than that… it was utterly perfect.

"Ellie!" Eddie complained, "How much longer until we get there?"

"We'll get there around 7:00 p.m. or so tomorrow boys… be patient" Ellie told her brothers… starting to get a bit impatient herself. She was eager to find a mud hole (Which was very common in this valley) and play her favorite game…. Mud Slinging.

Oh sure, Mud Slinging was a very discriminated against sport in that time… but only because the Possums had adopted it as their official sport. Possums… were not very well liked, and Ellie was a bit nervous about living in an area that was PACKED with other animals. She stayed positive though, and kept on walking, a small sheet of ice forming on her tusks. She remembered how she had been disqualified from all the Possum Mud Slinging games because she had an unfair advantage in that she had her trunk that she could very easily load by sucking in as much mud as possible, then shoot out the contents like a machine gun, keeping perfect aim the entire time. She had always wanted to find someone who she could enjoy this game with… she didn't want to play the game as much as she wanted to find someone who would understand her love of the sport. It was basically a snowball fight using mud instead of snow. Ellie enjoyed snowball fights as well, but since her brothers absolutely HATED the idea of getting clean… she couldn't play it either.

"Hey, boys." She asked her brothers as she kept on walking. "Do you remember when mom said that we'd have a whole bunch of mud holes to play Mud Slinging in?" They beamed.

"There's gonna be lots of them?" Crash asked hopefully.

"Of course… ma never lied." Ellie told her brothers. She smiled again, ever since her mother died, she had to play both parents to the twins… and that was not easy for her, especially since they had the idea in their heads that since she was their sister, that they could tease her and not listen to her when she told them things like it was time to sleep, or to go get cleaned up. Her mother never minded about her love of Mud Slinging, in fact, she thought it was a nice thing to see a girl have fun like that, and it didn't get her as dirty as Dung Rolling, which was her brothers' favorite sport. The main thing she missed about her mother was how she was so supportive of her and how she never wanted Ellie to be sad, and so in an effort to make her daughter as happy as possible would try to find flowers or things like that for Ellie to wear behind her ears… Ellie loved wearing flowers behind her ears, because she felt it made her beautiful, and she had heard many stories where boys had given girls flowers as a token of affection. This led Ellie to the next car on her train of thought.

She had never, ever, been loved by anyone outside of her family, and never been TRULY loved in her entire life. She remembered the day after the mating ceremony how all the girls Ellie's age gathered around a small pond and talked about love and things like that. Ellie's mom had insisted she go, unfortunately, Ellie was unable to join in on any of the conversations, and was left to hear about how happy the other girls were. She remembered how they had each described love as a different thing, but all had agreed that it was wonderful. Ellie had never felt more left out in her entire life. All she wanted was to know that someone out there cared for her, someone out there loved her, that she was not a freak who would never find anyone. Her biggest hope was that by some miracle, she would find someone in the valley. She felt her brothers move around on her back. They had found a large leaf, and were both trying to get underneath it to protect themselves from the rain. Unfortunately, the leaf could only cover one of them, and they were now arguing over who would get it.

"I WANT IT!" Crash yelled.

"BUT I SAW IT FIRST!" Eddie screamed back.

"BUT I GOT IT OFF THE TREE!" Crash said angrily

Ellie groaned, she absolutely HATED it when they argued… and whenever they argued over a certain item, they always lost it, '1…2…3…4…5' she counted in her head… and then, RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.

"AWW MAN! LOOK WHAT YOU DID NOW CRASH!" Eddie yelled.

"IT WASN'T ME! IT WAS YOU!" Crash shot back. Ellie groaned and picked the boys off of her back and looked at them in the eyes.

"You two will STOP ARGUING now! I am tired and sick of you guys yelling at each other all the time…. so what it's raining? Do you guys want to stop and find a cave and have to walk through another day of this, or do you want to go ahead and get to the valley… which is going to be a PARADISE? Which do you boys want?" Crash and Eddie looked at each other and sighed… their sister was right, she usually was. They could never understand why, but she had about 3 times the intelligence of her family.

"Ok" Crash said, defeated "We'll keep on going." Ellie smiled, put her brothers back on her back, and kept on walking. Her brothers were the only things she had in this world. They were the only creatures alive who cared for her, Ellie wasn't sure about where her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were, but she hardly ever saw them. She remembered the night that their mom died, how Ellie had decided to sleep on the ground, and Crash and Eddie curled up in her trunk and all three of them spent the night sharing memories of their mother and letting all their pain out. 'They may stink, they may be annoying, but they are still my brothers, and I promised my mom that I would take care of them, and that is exactly what I am going to do!' Ellie told herself as she felt her brothers curl up in her fur, trying to make themselves warm. 'Eddie's a good guy' she thought, 'All he really wants is to be known, so what if he wants to be the dung rolling champion of the world? I think it's kind of cute really, And Crash isn't that bad either.' She reminded herself, 'He just wants to make a difference, he's always coming up with new ideas, some of them MAY be a bit wacky… but who knows?'

"Ellie?" Eddie asked. "Are there gonna be any other Possums at the valley?"

"I dunno Eddie" She responded, "I honestly don't think there will be, but I may be wrong." Ellie shook some water off of herself, the only good thing that rain brought to Possums was more mud, and it scared the birds away as well. She hoped that the weather tomorrow would be better than this; she did not want to have to arrive at the valley when it was raining, that would not be very fun. She sighed as she looked up at the sky 'one more day' she told herself, 'just one day left… I can make it.'

Manny;

Manny stretched as he lay down in the cave that his friends and he had found. It had started to rain, and it was starting to get dark as well, plus, for some reason, Diego got extremely irritable and grumpy whenever it started to rain. So now he was stuck in this cave for the night with his friends.

"Hey, Manny." Sid asked his friend as he sat right next to him. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Nothing really Sid." Manny told his friend as he grabbed a piece of the immense plant Diego had found for Manny and Sid's dinner and ate it. Diego looked over at them from the fish he was eating and sat up.

"You look like something's on your mind buddy, mind telling us what it is?" Diego asked his friend, he was much more sensitive to Manny's feelings than Sid was. Manny looked over at him and sighed.

"I wasn't thinking about anything." He told them. "Can I just eat in peace please?" Diego then made Sid come over to his side of the cave so Manny could have some alone time.

Manny looked outside at the Glyptodon children staying in the cave across the way. They were playing in the mud, throwing it at one another. Manny smiled as he remembered playing that game when he was young, Mud Slinging they used to call it. Of course, Manny was especially good at the game and it remained one of his favorites today. He used to play it with his friends all the time when he was young, but once they reached the age of 13…. His friends decided that the game was dumb and inappropriate and stopped. Manny, being as loyal as he was, stopped playing the game altogether, but still inside was wishing to play again. Now an adult, Manny didn't have the immense urge to play as when he was 13 but still, whenever he saw little kids playing it he couldn't help but wish that he could as well. He remembered showing Wallace some kids playing it, but he thought that it didn't look fun. So Manny had to teach him snowball fighting instead. (Which was even better in Millie's point of view, her biggest pet peeve was to see Wallace get dirty.) Manny thought that if he could ever find a girl who loved the game as much as he did, that he would have found his true love, of course, he used to think that Millie was his true love, but it was a Mammoth legend that True Loves always died simultaneously, and since Manny didn't die when Millie did, that meant that they were not true loves. He had still loved Millie more than anything in the world and he had never really gotten over her death, he still continuously wished that, by some miracle, his family could come back.

Manny then noticed the two Glyptodon parents watching their children, smiling; they then nuzzled each other, and then continued watching their children. Manny's heart sunk. He remembered how he and Millie would often lay, trunks locked, watching their son run around with the other boys in the herd. The herd knew how close Manny and Millie were and always supported them, they'd always keep an eye on Wallace, to make sure that he didn't get hurt, and they were very supportive of Manny when Millie and Wallace died. He wanted so badly to have that feeling again, the wonderful feeling of pride and love, the feeling of sitting with your mate, watching your child play. He wanted it again, but he also did not want to loose his old family, he didn't want to forget them. He knew that Millie had not been his true love…. 'But' he thought, 'If she wasn't…then who could it possibly be? Who could I possibly love even more than Millie?'

Manny remembered staying with his parents for a few months after the incident, in order to get himself back in mental shape. He remembered how his mom constantly would talk with him and remind him that his family cared for him, but he didn't really care about that. All he wanted was to be loved, truly loved, not just… familial love, but real pure love. 3 years he had spent with Millie, 3 of the most wonderful years of his life. He remembered how hard it was for him to ask her to be his mate…. How he had rehearsed at least 100 times earlier that day in order to get the courage, and how he almost fainted afterwards when she said yes. He had worked hard for Millie, and he couldn't imagine a more wonderful, existing creature. The sun had finally set, and so he turned to his friends and smiled at them.

"We only have 11 days left guys." He told them happily, "After that, we will be there." They smiled at him and Sid walked over to his side.

"Manny," Sid told him, "When we get to the valley, do you think that there will be other creatures of our species there?"

"I don't know how many times I have answered that question on this trip Sid," Manny told him "I'm not sure…. It's possible."

"Sid." Diego said, "Why do you want there to be other creatures of your species? Are you hoping to find a girl by any chance?" Sid gave Diego his best pouty face as Manny laughed.

"Sid." Manny told him "Do you REALLY think finding a girl is THAT easy? Because it's not, it takes a ton of bravery and willingness to let them be in charge…. It is very, very difficult, way too difficult for you!" Sid looked at Manny, noticed he was just joking and then laughed along with his pals. Manny smiled, he and his buddies, 3 bachelors, working their way about the world, each had a hard past, and was helping each other gain a better future. At least, that was Manny's goal, to find both of his friends good futures…. It shouldn't be to hard… right?

Well, there you go! Chapter 5! Please don't forget to review and reply, and also, if you want to post a Manny/Ellie fic, don't wait until the movie comes out, go ahead and post it now! That way you'll beat the crowd! I will post up chapter six (Titled "Ellie's Arrival") tomorrow, this will consist of, what else, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie's arrival at the Valley… the location where The Meltdown is going to take place, pay close attention, because some of the locations I will take note of, are going to be seen in the movie, along with many mentioned things, such as Cousin Vinny, The geysers, Vultures, Rocks, Millie and Wallace, Mud Slinging, Dung Rolling, the fact that Manny doesn't have the necklace anymore, Crash and Eddie arguing, Ellie trying to take care of them, them picking on her, and so, so much more! I will put up chapters 7-9 on April 1st, probably in the A.M. hours. For I will be attending a "Meltdown Party" in the afternoon and through the night until noon the next day. Meaning that chapter 10 will be posted sometime between April 2nd and April 5th… at least, that's my goal. Once again, thank you for reading… and get ready for the Meltdown, because next time I see you all after tomorrow, it will have started! squeals of excitement and suffocates Ellie doll in hands oops… he he… sorry! Either way, TTYT! (Talk To You Tomorrow!)

Taffyabc, (A.K.A. Funkywatermelon's assistant)


	6. Chapter 6: Ellie's Arrival

Hi guys! I told you yesterday that I would be here again today to give you guys some more adventure! Also, today is a VERY special day in the world of Souls Connected because… bum bum bum… Ellie and her brothers are arriving at the valley today! YAAAAY! Ok, I want to thank the one reviewer who reviewed my last chapter, thank you! I'm sorry if it was too mushy for you. If you do not like mushy-ness do not read chapter 10 when it comes out, it's going to have fluff OVERLOAD! No errors in the last chapter… and for your information, this chapter will NOT have a Manny segment in it. Manny and his pals will have their own chapter without an Ellie segment once they arrive at the valley. (That's going to be chapter 8) Either way, sit back, relax and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Ellie, Crash, Eddie, and The Valley do not belong to me, the old rhino however, does.

**Souls Connected: Chapter 6**

**Ellie's Arrival**

"Are we there yet?" Eddie asked, laying on his stomach on Ellie's back, holding his chin in his hands.

"For the 100th time Eddie, NO!" Ellie told him, frustrated. Where was this valley anyway? She didn't even know if she went in the right direction this morning…. And she was too embarrassed to ask for directions. Her brothers and her came up to a frozen lake.

"Oh great!" Crash complained "How are we going to cross THAT!" Ellie rolled her eyes.

"Sheesh boys" She told them, "Remember how dad taught us to ice-glide?"

"Yeah!" Crash said laughing, "And you kept falling on your butt!" He and Eddie laughed as Ellie rolled her eyes, put her brothers down in the snow, and put one of her feet on the ice. It seemed to be sturdy.

"Yeah well, you weren't that good either!" She responded as she put her three remaining legs on the ice and skidded to the closest land piece. She then called for her brothers to hurry up. Crash and Eddie grabbed each other's hands and skidded to where Ellie was. Once they got there, they went through about 10 different land pieces… until the area where they had started skidding was out of sight. Finally, Ellie saw something up ahead, it was a hole… not just any hole, an especially BIG hole…it was the valley! "BOYS! COME HERE! THE VALLEY'S THIS WAY!" She called and immediately started to skid towards the land mass closest to the hole, skipping numerous land pieces as she did. Once she got there, she jumped onto the land mass, causing herself to stop immediately, and then looked down into the valley. It was beautiful!  
The entire valley was a huge hole; it had several forests in it and was an oasis compared to the tundra-like landscape surrounding it. It also attracted heat down into it so it was quite warm in there as well. Surrounding it on all four sides were huge glaciers, the one on the south side, which Ellie and her brothers were on, held back the huge icy lake that they had just crossed. The glacier on the north side had an ominous crack running completely through it. 'Good thing the crack's on this side!' Ellie thought to herself. On the far north side of the valley, which was the least populated section was a huge rock canyon. This canyon was home to all the vultures living in the valley. Situated on the top of the highest rock structure was a gigantic piece of redwood bark. In front of the canyon was the geyser field… looking in, Ellie could see at least a hundred geysers going off. In front of this was a bunch of fallen rocks, and then the cliff that divided the north section from the south (The south was on the top of the cliff and the north is at the bottom) Ellie noticed a large, teetering rock bridge on this cliff. After you got to the south side, you saw a large rock, covered in small, weird looking trees, this area made Ellie seem particularly funny, as though she'd seen it before. There was also a large rock sculpture of a creature, Ellie couldn't make it out, but it looked somewhat like a sloth. Then, there was this large river, with ice floes in it. Ellie thought that it would be the perfect place for her and her brothers to wash off. Across the river was a beautiful large forest… Ellie's eyes widened when she saw it, she knew that that forest was going to be her home from then on. And finally, on the far south side, right below Ellie was the most populated section of the valley, Water Park Flats. The water coming from the dripping ice created a wonderful water park for children Ellie could even see a few playing in the water then. Excited to enter the majestic valley, she grabbed her brothers, put them on her back and ran over to the entry area, which was on the east side of the valley.

Once she got there, she saw this elderly, blind rhino standing near the entrance ramp, waiting to take the role of whoever entered the valley. Ellie politely walked up to him and tapped him on his shoulder.

"Excuse me sir." She said politely "Are you the guy who writes down the information on everyone who moves into the valley?"

"I sure am!" The rhino said "What can I do for ya little lady?"

"Well." Ellie explained, "Me and my brothers here were thinking of moving in, is that ok?"

"That's perfectly fine!" The rhino said as he pulled out this long black rock and walked up to this large rock that already had a lot of markings on it. "Just tell me the number of creatures in your group, your genders and your species, then you can be on your way."

"There are 3 of us." Ellie told him, "One girl, two boys." She waited as the rhino wrote this down, and then continued. "And all three of us are Possums." The rhino put three tally marks in an area of the rock and then walked up to them.

"You're all done." He told them, "You can go on in now." Ellie smiled as she walked through, and then stopped. 'What if there's someone else in there?' she asked herself, 'what if there's someone like me?' she then turned back to the rhino and walked up to him.

"Excuse me sir." She told him. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but is there any chance that there are any other Possums in this valley?"

"None that I know of." He told her. "Sorry." Ellie then looked sadly at her brothers, who were now sitting on her tusks, and continued down the ramp into the valley.

They entered into the Water Park area. Ellie very quickly and quietly walked through, hoping that she wouldn't run into any creatures who would think her weird. She was still, of course, amazed at all the creatures that lived here, she saw Starts, Scrats, Glyptodons, Aardvarks, Beavers, Sloths, Rhinos, Two bird species she couldn't identify, Tapirs, Armadillos, A freaky looking mammal she couldn't identify, Elks, Vultures, Mole Hogs, Thousands of species of insects (They didn't need to be written in, they could just go in as they pleased.), and last, but not least, one large Chalicotherium (Cave Bear) sleeping by the waterfall. Ellie's brothers looked down at her with looks of amazement in their eyes…. They couldn't believe how many species lived in this part of the valley alone! To make matters even better, the valley wasn't closed up yet! It was going to close up for the summer in 9 days. Ellie beamed as she brought her brothers over to the forest, being careful not to let anyone see her. 'If only mom were here' she thought to herself, 'she would LOVE this place!' It was official; Acorn Valley was the most beautiful place Ellie had EVER seen in her entire life. She snuck into the woods and after about 30 minutes found a clearing that she and her brothers could use as their new home. Ellie sighed of contentment as she looked around for some food, it was so warm in this valley, she knew there were probably hawks here as well, but it would still be safer than out there. The main reason not many creatures lived here was because it was so hard to get to. Ellie's Possum mother had worried that Crash and Eddie wouldn't be able to make the trip, but now they were rolling around in a dung pit, laughing to their hearts content. Ellie smiled as she ate some leaves and looked up at the stars. She didn't know why, but she always loved to look at the night sky. It always seemed so calm and friendly.

Ellie's eyes drooped as she gave a big yawn, it had been a long journey, and she decided that it was high time that she get some rest. She had her brothers clean themselves off in a nearby pond, and then they all climbed up into the tree and fell asleep. It was a beautiful night, Ellie smiled as she finally drifted off to sleep…her mother had been right, this place was a paradise!

Ok, there's chapter 6 everyone! Ok, I know you are probably thinking, "It's short!" well yeah, there was no Manny segment in this one, only Ellie, reason being is I wanted to make sure that this was a very important part of the story for Ellie's side. Now I want you all to review please, you will have PLENTY of time! The next 3 chapters will go up on April 1st in the A.M. hours. Chapter 7 is going to be a regular chapter like 1-5 (I haven't chosen a topic yet.) Chapter 8 is going to be about Manny and his pals arriving at the valley, and Chapter 9 is going to be an author's notice… that is going to be VERY IMPORTANT, do NOT read chapter 10 without reading chapter 9… it is ESSENTIAL to read chapter 9 before you read chapter 10… once I post it up and you read it, you will see why. Then the final chapter of the story, chapter 10 is going to be posted anywhere from April 2nd to April 5th. Now, as you probably all know, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, the movie that this story is leading up to, is coming out on MARCH 31st. Meaning that the next time I see you guys… some of you may have already seen it! That's wonderful if you have! I am going to see it at 7:15 p.m. on April 1st (The 2nd day it is out!) and I am very excited. So be ready, oh, and Manny's countdown is off, he's going to get to the valley in 9 days… the movie comes out in 10 days… sorry for that confusion. Either way, have a wonderful week, and a wonderful spring break, for all of those who have it next week! I will see you on April 1st… See you after The Meltdown, I gotta go reserve my spot on that boat! Bye!

Taffyabc (Funkywatermelon's assistant)


	7. Chapter 7: Parental Bonds

Hi everyone! I hope you had a good week! I know I did! Ok, well, here is the next part of my story, so I hope that you thoroughly enjoy it, I definitely know that I enjoyed writing it Ok, I'm in a rush right now (things to do, people to see, you get the picture!) So I'll just get started.

Disclaimer: Ice Age doesn't belong to me Yadda Yadda Yadda; the characters' parents do Yadda Yadda Yadda, ok, read everyone!

Souls Connected Chapter 7:

Parental Bonds

Ellie:

Ellie hid behind a group of trees as she watched a kindly mama Aardvark play with her children. Ellie's eyes started to fill with tears as she remembered her own mother and how she had died on the way to the valley. She was immediately thrown into a flashback.

_It was the first day of the journey and Ellie was traveling with her mom and brothers to the new valley._

_"Mom…" Eddie asked, "Why do we have to go to this new valley… I really wanna stay here!" _

_"Because Edward," Her mom said "It's safer there, It has lots of mud for you to play in, it's an absolute paradise, and also, it's where you were born." She smiled up at Ellie as they continued walking, not noticing the frown Eddie had on his face upon being called 'Edward', which was one of his biggest pet-peeves. Ellie had all three of them on her back and was doing all the walking for her family. But she didn't really mind. They continued on, talking and walking as they went, until they decided to stop for a bite to eat. They forgot, however, that the spot at which they were staying was home to a very vile pack of Sabers. _

_Ellie's mom walked off to find some food, and about maybe 10 minutes later, gave a big yell and ran down the hillside towards the rest of her family._

_"Eleanor, Crash, Edward… RUN!" She yelled as she kept on running. Ellie didn't like being called Eleanor, and wasn't sure what was going on either, but her mother had never lied to her and there was a sense of urgency in the way she talked. So she grabbed her brothers, put them on her back, and started to run. She then turned around to see if her mom was coming, and found that there was a Saber chasing her. _

_"MOM!" Ellie yelled, trying to urge her mother into jumping on her back. But she just looked Ellie straight in the eyes and yelled for her to keep going. Ellie started running, very scared, knowing that her mother was about 10 feet behind her with the Saber getting closer each time after about 10 minutes of continuous running, Ellie saw her mom trip over a rock and fall to the ground she immediately turned around and ran up to her._

_"Mom" She told her, "Get up!"_

_"I – can't" the kind woman responded, "Too-weak." Ellie's hopes were diminished as she remembered that her mom had a relatively weak heart, and therefore couldn't run very far. She realized that her mom had just run for about 10 straight minutes, and wouldn't be able to walk again for a while. She kindly tried to pick her mom up in hopes that she could help her, but her mom pulled out of Ellie's grasp. "I'm sorry sweetheart." She told her, "But—I'm just, so tired, so exhausted, I won't be able to make it anyway, just—run, go, get out of here before the Saber catches up." Ellie noticed tears were starting to form in her mother's eyes. "I should be able to satisfy it anyway." At this Ellie's eyes overflowed with tears._

_"Mom" She cried, "Please don't do this. We need you!" _

_"No you don't honey" Her mom responded, "You have each other, I want you to do something for me, ok?" Ellie's eyes continued to tear as she nodded, "Take care of your brothers for me, I'm not sure if they can make it all the way to the valley, but try to keep their hopes up." Ellie nodded once again. She hugged her mom, picked up her brothers, and then continued running off. Nothing could compare to Ellie's pain as she heard the Saber behind her give a roar of triumph… It had found its prey._

_Ellie and her brothers spent that evening huddled up together and shared memories of their mother._

Ellie wiped the tears out of her eyes as she continued watching the mother with her kids 'If I ever have kids' she told herself 'I will spend as much time with them as I possibly can.' Her tears came even more once she saw the father Aardvark come in and start playing with the children. She was brought into yet another flashback, this one about her father.

_"Dad!" Ellie yelled as she saw her father coming over the nearby hill. Her father had spent the entire weekend with his pals, which was hard for her since he usually spent the weekends with his children. When he saw her, he smiled._

_"There's my Ell-Bell" He said as he ran up to her and hugged her trunk with his small Possum arms. He then looked happily up at her, "What do you say we go do something together, right now, some father-daughter time?" Ellie smiled down back at him._

_"I'd love that dad." She replied as they started to walk off._

_"I found this really nice watering hole" Her father told her, "There's a human camp somewhat close to it, but I don't imagine that they'd find us there." Ellie smiled at him as they reached the hole. It was very nice. After about an hour of splashing in the water, and eating from the nearby trees they decided to walk home. It was dark, and neither could see very well. Unfortunately, they went the wrong way, and ended up right in the middle of the humans' camp. The humans were sitting around a fire, cooking their evening meal when they turned around and saw the Mammoth and Possum standing there. Ellie's dad turned to her._

"_I think we should probably run." He told her as a matter of factly; Ellie had turned around and started to run when she saw a long stick hit the ground next to her._

"_THEY'RE THROWING SPEARS AT US DAD!" She yelled, terrified._

"_KEEP RUNNING!" He responded from the spot on her back where he was sitting. Ellie did what he said and kept running, dodging any low-lying branches in her way. Unfortunately, she didn't notice one and ran right into it. She shook her head and was ok, but her father had been flung off her back and upon his decent hit his head on a rock. He was unconscious... Ellie reached down to pick him up, but when a spear landed right next to her, she was frightened and continued running. She heard them turn around, and went back to where her father was, in the spot where he was, was a single bloody spear…Ellie realized what had happened and ran home, tears in her eyes, To tell the rest of her family the sad news._

Ellie shook these thoughts out of her head as she noticed her brothers coming out of the forest next to her.

"ELLIE!" Crash called. "Come on! I thought we were going to have a mud fight!" Ellie smiled and followed them, looking warily at the family behind her. 'Maybe someday I'll have a family of my own, a REAL family, one that I can REALLY take care of!' she thought, and continued on her way to play with her brothers. Leaving the family and upsetting thoughts about her deceased parents behind her.

Manny:

Manny yawned as he lay down on the ground next to Diego. He was tired, and didn't want to spend yet ANOTHER night awake, worrying about what could be outside. Luckily, Sid was also quite tired, and fell asleep almost immediately. Diego was tired as well, and fell asleep after about 30 minutes. Manny stayed awake after them, and found himself drifting off into a flashback.

_It had been about 2 months since Millie and Wallace's deaths, and Manfred was starting to get a little better. His parents had generously let him live with them until he was completely able to live on his own again. They were now spending a nice summer afternoon eating in the fields. Manfred was in his own little universe, thinking about the world around him when he heard his mother give a trumpet of alarm. It took him about 10 seconds to realize that a group of humans had found the happy trio and had decided to hunt them. Manfred immediately started to run at top speed, his father right next to him. Manfred looked behind him and saw his mother running as fast as she could, but still about 20 feet behind them._

_You see, Manfred's mother had broken her legs when she was young, they had healed. But they were now, as a result, very weak and she was an extremely slow runner._

_"Emily!" Manfred's dad yelled at his mate as she fell to the ground finally exhausted. He immediately turned around and ran over to help her up._

_"DAD!" Manfred yelled frantically, "Hurry up! They're coming!" His father however, helped Manfred's mother up and helped her run via catching her when she fell and pushing her back upright. After this happened about 8 times, the humans caught up to them. Manfred was a good deal ahead, so when he heard his dad give a trumpet of alarm, he turned around terrified, not wanting to see what was inevitable, but still watched all the same. The humans took a large spear and threw it at Manfred's mother, His father ran in front of her, taking the impact of the spear himself. The humans, having killed off the tough elder male of the group, took their last spear and threw it at the female. Manfred's mother did not have anyone to block her this time and the spear hit her as it was supposed too. The humans happily took the bodies of the two dead Mammoths and started to walk back towards their camp. Manfred sadly turned around with tears in his eyes and slowly walked away…not sure of what to do next._

Manny gave a big sigh as his flashback ended. How hard it was to loose his parents like that. 'If I EVER get a family again' he told himself 'I am going to protect it with all the power that I can, I will NEVER let them die because I was too scared to help them. I will do all that I can to make sure that they are safe in the face of danger.' Having made this drastic decision, he finally fell asleep. Thankful not to have any dreams that might leave him with any bad memories.

There you go! Chapter 7! Whew! I'll tell you; this story has been such an adventure! Either way. I hope you enjoyed learning about the character's parents… I know I did! They are really wonderful parents and I find it sad that they had to die like that. Of course, I made that happen to them, to add to the drama of the story. I'll see you guys all later, remember…. The Eviscerator is NOT for children!


	8. Chapter 8: Manny's Arrival

Hi there everyone! It is nice to see everyone again! As I have told you earlier, this chapter is going to be special, because it's going to be a total Manny chapter. I want you all to be ready and prepared for the next few chapters…. I also want to make sure that we all are ready and happy and eager for fun. Ok, sit back, relax and enjoy, you will have fun!

Disclaimer: Ice Age and any characters from it do not belong to me.

Souls Connected Chapter 8,

Manny's Arrival

Manny smiled at his friends, Sid was waddling in between him and Diego and he was singing. Usually Manny didn't like his singing, but this time the song was actually an ok one, so he didn't say anything. Also, Sid seemed to be in a good mood too. The real reason was probably because they were going to arrive at the valley today and that left Manny in an extremely good mood.

"Manny" Sid asked his gargantuan friend, "Will we get there soon?" Manny smiled as he picked Sid up with his trunk and put him on his back.

"We'll get there within the hour Sid" He told him "Just be patient for a little while." They continued on their journey, about half an hour later, they decided to take a 10 minute break, during which Sid found a young Beaver child staying with her family, she played with him for the whole time until Sid and his pals had to continue on their now only 30 minute journey. As he waved goodbye to this child, Sid had an idea…. He enjoyed children, and he wanted to get some respect, he smiled as he looked up at Manny.

"Hey, Manny" He asked, "I'm thinking of making a camp once we get to the valley… Do you want to help?" Manny frowned at him.

"No. I'm not qualified to run a camp, neither is Diego." He responded, "And you're not qualified to run a camp either, so I don't think that it's such a good idea for you to do so." Sid frowned and kept on walking. They then continued on, walking through the tundra landscape surrounding the valley. After about 20 minutes, Diego saw a big hole in the distance.

"It's the valley!" he said happily as he and his friends started running (Well, Sid did a high speed waddle) and once they reached the valley they looked in and were very happy. They walked over to the entrance ramp and Manny walked over to the blind Rhino that was there.

"Excuse me sir." He told him "My name is Manfred, I and my friends were wanting to move into the valley."

"Sorry guys" The Rhino told them, "The gate's closed for the summer." He then turned around and started to walk into the valley. Manny grabbed the old guy and held him up with his trunk in front of his face.

"Now you listen here buddy." He told him "I and my friends have been traveling for 3 months, just to get here, and you are telling me that we can't get in?" The Rhino was now scared,

"I'm sorry sir." He told him, "But the last people got here 10 days ago, a trio of possums, the gate's closed." Manny frowned.

"What do you mean, the gate's closed? I thought that everyone was welcome in this valley, no matter what!" He asked.

"Well…" the Rhino responded "The head of this valley is very strict about letting people in late." Finally Diego stepped up and spoke for the first time since they got there.

"When did the gates close?" he asked the Rhino as Manny put him back on the ground.

"About an hour ago." He told them. Diego smirked as he walked up to him and started to walk in circles around him.

"My name is Diego." He told him "And I am a Saber-Tooth Tiger. Are you sure that you won't let me and my pals here in? I mean, it's only an hour late, it's not like you're going to be killed or kicked out of the valley, is it?"

"No" the Rhino stuttered. Diego smiled and winked at his pals.

"Ok then" he replied, "Just let us in, we won't tell anyone if you don't. If you don't let us in however, you'd make us pretty angry, and trust me, you don't want to get a Saber like myself angry!" The Rhino's face was full of fear as he walked back up to Manny.

"I'm sorry sirs!" He told them, "Just say how many are in your party, the genders of the members, and the species, then you can come on in." Manny smiled as he stepped up.

"There are three of us, we're all males, and there's one Mammoth, One Saber-Tooth-Tiger and one Sloth." The Rhino smiled as he made the marks on the rock for the new inhabitants of the valley.

"Go on in" He told them, Sid and Diego smiled and started to walk in, but Manny stayed behind, Diego turned around and looked at his pal.

"Manny, you coming buddy?" He asked, Manny nodded,

"Just give me a minute." He replied, then turned to the Rhino next to him, Excuse me, are there any other Mammoths, Sloths, or Sabers in the valley?" The Rhino checked the rock then turned to him.

"There are some Sloths, but there aren't any other Mammoths or Sabers…Sorry." He replied, Manny's face drooped, Diego looked at him with a sympathetic look on his face and Sid smiled. Manny disguised his disappointment with a small smile as he walked down the entrance ramp into the valley; the Rhino walked in, pushed a rock over the entrance and walked on in. Once they got down, Manny's smile became real, there may haven't been any Mammoths, but there were a bunch of other creatures. Sid's face beamed when he saw the other Sloths. Manny was happy to realize that they were not Sid's old family. After letting Sid socialize for a little bit, the friends decided to find where they were going to sleep. Once they found the right location, the three friends all drifted off to sleep, and for the first time in a long while, Manny actually fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Well, not as good as Ellie's Arrival per say, but it was still pretty good! Stay tuned, to see what happens next in this story, please see "Ice Age Two: The Meltdown" I hope you enjoyed this story so far, and I do also hope that you enjoy the movie as well. Thanks for reading this story, and I am looking forward to hearing from you guys again after the movie… see you then! I have to go, and remember, don't listen to Fast Tony. He's nothing but a liar!

See ya real soon!

Taffyabc (Funkywatermelon's assistant)


	9. Chapter 9: Author's Note

**AUTHOR'S NOTICE**

ATTENTION! DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT READ THE NEXT CHAPTER UNTIL YOU HAVE SEEN ICE AGE TWO; THE MELTDOWN! YOU MAY, BUT YOU WILL BE VERY CONFUSED! READ BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS…

This story is going to skip over a major part, the part where Manny and Ellie meet and finally fall in love and get together. That part of the story is concealed within the events of the new movie Ice Age Two: The Meltdown. You are free to read the next chapter, but I do not want to hear anyone complain that they didn't understand it because I skipped over some stuff. I know that I did, and honestly, in order to NOT do so, I would have had to write a narrative of the movie, and I REALLY do not feel like doing that! Therefore I am going to skip over that part and "fast forward" per say in order to keep up with the time.

If you have read the OFFICIAL movie novel (The one NOT titled "The Great Escape" That one is NOT true and is full of things that are not in the movie.) then feel free to read the next chapter. I know that this is pretty confusing… but I wanted the story to have a happy ending so this is the easiest way for me to do so. I hope that you are not too confused and that you understand the situation. Thank you for reading the story so far and I am looking forward to posting the final chapter in the next few days. Once again, please DO NOT read the next chapter unless you have either seen Ice Age Two: The Meltdown or read the Official Junior Novel for said movie first. Thank you, and watch out for singing vultures!


	10. Chapter 10: Souls Connected

Hi everyone! I am proud to say that after 3 months of waiting I finally saw Ice Age 2: The Meltdown on Saturday night and it was AWESOME! Also, one Manny/Ellie fic has already been posted, so go ahead and post yours; I need 4 more until I can finally put up the community! The decorations at the party to see the movie were awesome! They had this blue cloth hanging on the entrance to their living room, and they had put cut outs of Scrat and the Piranhas on it, then once you walked into their living room, you saw that they had covered the floor with blue paper and cut out white ice flows and taped them onto that… they even had a few ice flows sticking up a little, then they had a tree with cut outs of Crash and Eddie hanging from it, strings hanging from the ceiling with twisted pieces of white and blue paper taped onto that (those were supposed to be water drops!). They even had black 'Vulture' feathers laying everywhere, but the highlight was hanging right above their fireplace…. A specially-done drawing of Manny and Ellie locking trunks! I seriously squealed when I saw it! Even better, I GOT TO KEEP IT! YAY! It's hanging on my bedroom door right now! I and my sister even got to keep one of the vulture feathers too! So the party was very fun, and we played "Sid Says" SO many times that I am just exhausted… but about the movie, it KICKED BUTT! I loved it, and I was excited how they showed the trunk lock at the end. Sorry, I've been ranting on! Either way, this chapter of the story is the last one, and it takes place about a month after Ice Age 2 ends… I will warn you ahead of time, this is going to have LOADS of fluff, so if you don't like reading fluff do not read this chapter, and, don't read it if you haven't already seen the movie either. So without further ado… her we go, the conclusion to Souls Connected…..

Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age or Ice Age 2: The Meltdown… Tears come from eyes

Souls Connected Chapter 10: Souls Connected

Ellie laughed at a joke her brother, Eddie told her as she walked into the cave where her and her new 'family' stayed.

"Boy Eddie" she giggled as she put her brother down on the ground and lay down in front of him. "You sure are learning some good jokes, where did you learn that one?" Eddie beamed as he puffed out his chest.

"Sid taught it to me!" he said proudly. Ellie laughed even harder.

"Sid?" She asked. "Are you sure Sid could come up with a joke that good?" She then heard someone walking into the cave behind her; she turned around to see who it was. It was her turn to beam when she saw that her new boyfriend, Manny was walking into the cave with her other brother, Crash on one of his tusks.

Ellie had been Manny's girlfriend for about a month now and she had never been happier. Manny made sure to spend at least an hour alone with her every single day, an hour during which they would usually talk about their old families or other members of their group. Sometimes they would lock trunks… this act always made Ellie silent, no matter how she was feeling before-hand. When she locked trunks with Manny, she felt the oddest tingly sensation in her heart… she enjoyed it, but was embarrassed about it as well. She adored Manny, not only had he taught her what she really was, but he saved her life, was the first creature out of her family to EVER call her attractive, was the first real friend she ever had, and to top it off, in order to admit that he loved her, he hung upside down from a tree, just like she had used to do before she met him… She looked at him and smiled, he truly was the most wonderful guy she had ever met.

"What are you guys laughing about?" He asked as he sat down next to Ellie. Manny was quite happy now that he had found Ellie, he was certain she was his true love. She loved children as much as he did, she enjoyed mud slinging, she liked adventures, she always sang to a child to lull them to sleep, and most importantly… she loved him as much as he loved her. He thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. He hated to admit it, but she was twice as beautiful as Millie ever was and twice as nice too. He had worked very hard to get Ellie, and was very proud that she loved him like she did. He took special care to make sure she was safe and made note to tell her he loved her every single day.

"Eddie was just telling me that joke that Sid apparently told him." Ellie explained as she smiled over at him, trying her hardest to resist locking trunks or nuzzling around her brothers who cringed at the smallest thought of their sister being in love. Manny laughed as Crash jumped down onto the ground in front of him, grabbed Eddie and ran out of the cave with him leaving Ellie and Manny alone together.

"Eddie told that joke to Sid, who decided to take credit for it and told him to tell it to you and to say that he was the one who made it up!" Manny exclaimed to Ellie as she watched her brothers exit the cave… once they were gone she smiled in spite of herself.

"Manny," She told him "You do realize that they just left, don't you?" the two lovebirds laughed and shook their heads.

"They are trying so hard." Manny told his new friend as he gave her a short, sweet nuzzle. "I mean just this morning Diego" he stopped short.

"What?" Ellie asked him "What did he do?"

"Uh- Nothing" Manny lied… he didn't want Ellie to know about the embarrassing conversation he'd had with his pal earlier that day--- Start Flashback

_Manny woke up and smiled over at the sleeping figure of Ellie laying about 5 feet away from him. 'She's so beautiful' he told himself. He then looked around to make sure that everyone else was asleep, then very quietly walked over to her. Once he reached her he moved the hair out of her face and very softly locked his trunk with hers._

_"I can see you." Diego told him as he got up from where he was pretending to sleep and walked over to his pal, who, after finding out he was spotted immediately un-locked his trunk with Ellie's and walked over to his friend._

_"So what?" Manny whispered back. "We like each other, is that so bad?" Diego scoffed._

_"Like? I don't think it's that Manny, it looks more to me as if you guys are head over heels for each other." Diego smirked as he motioned towards a nearby empty clearing, "I think we need to talk." Manny obediently followed his friend into the clearing and sat beside him in front of a stream._

_"What's this about?" He asked, not wanting Ellie to wake up to find him missing._

_"This is about you asking Ellie 'The Question'." Diego told his friend as he caught a fish and popped it into his mouth._

_"What do you mean 'The Question'?" Manny asked, clearly not understanding what his friend was getting at. Diego laughed to himself as he shook his head._

_"You know, 'The Question' the 5 words that are the hardest thing for any male to say? 'The Question'." Diego smiled to himself when Manny's face changed from confusion to shock at the realization of what his friend was talking about. Manny, not wanting to wake up anyone in the camp about 30 feet away tried to keep calm and get a hold of the situation._

_"So let me get this straight." He said, "You want me to ask Ellie to be my mate?" he said this last sentence with surprise as though it was the most ridiculous idea in the word._

_"Oh come on!" Diego teased, "You can't tell me that the thought hasn't occurred to you." _

_"Well- I – Uh." Manny stuttered, "The thought HAS occurred to me, but I don't want to ask her just yet, I mean, what if she says no?" Diego smiled…all he wanted was to see his friend truly happy again, sure he was extremely happy now that he had this wonderful girlfriend, but Diego knew that deep inside, Manny really wanted another, REAL family… and he was determined to help him get one ._

_"How many times did you and Ellie lock trunks yesterday?" He asked a sneaky smile on his face._

_"That's a personal question" Manny told his friend…then looked down at the ground, "27" Diego smiled once again._

_"So you're telling me, that the girl who locked trunks with you 27 times in one day does NOT want to be your mate?" He said as he stood up and started to walk over to the other clearing._

_"You think she'll say yes?" Manny asked, hope in his voice as he walked alongside his pal._

_"Of course!" Diego exclaimed "Trust me; she is head over heels for you. She'll definitely say yes, you just have to say it correctly." He then ran on into the clearing._

_"She'll say yes?" Manny asked himself as he stopped short and looked over at Ellie who was now in the process of waking up. 'She's so wonderful' he thought to himself for the second time that day, it was then that he realized that he DID want her to be his mate… and Diego was right, there was no reason for her to say no... Manny couldn't take it much longer; He made a mental note in his head to ask her the minute he got the courage._

End Flashback

Ellie frowned at her friend,

"You're lying Manny; I can see it in your eyes." Manny immediately looked at her and once noticing that she was unhappy immediately came up with a truth that would satisfy her yet not give the subject of the conversation away.

"It's personal, a guy thing. It would make you feel uncomfortable, trust me." He told her, she looked at him as if she didn't believe him, and then shook her head.

"I know you're trying to hide something from me, but I'm not going to nag you until you confess, I respect your boundaries, I can see I'm crossing one, let's just change the subject." She told him kindly. She then gave him a look of great affection as she locked her trunk with his. "You're so funny sometimes." Manny locked his trunk around hers then nuzzled her. He smiled when her eyes met his, and she smiled at him. It was this smile that did it for him. That one smile gave him the courage to do the one thing that most males are terrified to do. He unlocked his trunk with Ellie's then stood up and started to walk out of the cave.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked a little hurt that this tender moment between the two of them was oddly ended. Manny kept his back to her and looked down at the ground. It was time…..

"Ellie," He said, "When I'm around you, I-I'm different, I'm twice as happy as usual, I feel 10 years younger, and everything else in the world is not there, almost as if it's just the two of us together..." Ellie stood up and started to walk towards him.

"Is that bad?" she asked, a little worried about what he was getting at.

"No, not at all!" he told her turning around so she could see that he wasn't angry, "In fact, it's the most wonderful feeling I've ever had!" He then walked closer to her and locked his trunk with hers, still staying about 1 foot away from her so their trunks were hanging loosely between the two of them. Manny took a mental gulp, 'This is it' he thought to himself 'ask it, just 5 simple words, will-you-be-my-mate. It's not that bad. Don't break down, do it for Ellie.' He looked Ellie straight in the eyes and began "The truth be told Ellie, I love you more than anything else in this world. You are the single most amazing creature I have ever met in my entire life and…" Manny gave a big sigh to make sure that Ellie was paying attention. "Ellie…Will you be my mate?" the second the words came out of his mouth Ellie unlocked her trunk with his and just stared at him, with a shocked expression on her face… "Ellie?" Manny asked concerned, "Are you ok?"

"You… you just asked me to be your mate." Ellie said as tears started to form in her eyes. "You want me to be your mate!" She then sat down, tears flowing out of her eyes. Manny walked over to her and sat next to her.

"Yes, I do Ellie." He told her, "I love you. I want you to be my mate. I really do." He then put his trunk under her chin and pulled her face up so she was looking in his eyes. "I really, truly, do." Ellie then immediately locked trunks with him and buried her face in his trunk, her tears now practically a mini waterfall flowing down her face.

"I don't believe this." She told her friend, "I didn't expect to find a boyfriend, but never in a million years did I expect to find a mate!" Manny smiled as he un-locked his trunk with hers and used it to wipe the tears off of her face.

"I'm not trying to be funny Ellie." He told her. "I truly love you and want you to be my mate." She immediately smiled as she wiped the remaining tears off of her face.

"Yes." She said happily.

"Yeah, this is sure something isn't it." Manny asked her as he gave her a nuzzle. Ellie laughed.

"Manny… I didn't mean 'Yes, this is crazy.'" She smiled as she gave him a nuzzle in return.

"Then, what did you mean?" Manny said, now knowing fully what she meant but still wanting to hear her say it so he could be sure it wasn't a dream.

"I meant… Yes, I'll be your mate." Ellie said with a big smile on her face. Her eyes started to fill up with tears of happiness as did Manny's. The two now mates-to-be sat down, locked trunks, nuzzled and finished their tender moment from before. Once they finished, they both unlocked trunks, and stood up still facing each other.

"Meet me at the entrance to the cave at sunset in 5 hours." Manny told Ellie with a huge smile on his face. "We can do the ritual tonight."

"I'll be counting the minutes." Ellie told him as she gave him a short but sincere trunk lock.

"Go on" Manny told his friend, "Go enjoy your last day being single!" he then playfully pushed her towards the direction of her favorite clearing. Ellie smiled at him as she headed in that direction.

"I love you." She told him then started running in that direction. Crash and Eddie's favorite dung pile was that way as well, and she couldn't wait to tell them the good news.

"Love you too!" Manny called to her as he yet again smiled then walked toward where Diego and Sid had gone to gather some more firewood with the same intentions as Ellie had.

Ellie ran excitedly through the woods towards her brothers' dung pile. After running for about 3 minutes. She breathlessly skidded to a stop about 5 inches from the pile a huge smile still on her face.

"Ellie!" Eddie said happily from the top of the pile and then jumped down and hugged her trunk, dung still all over him. Ellie smiled then shook the dung off of herself. "What are you so happy about?" At this moment Crash came out of the pile, also covered in dung.

"Why aren't you saying anything sis?" He asked curiously, both boys stood in front of Ellie, arms crossed and looking up at her. Ellie blushed underneath her fur and wiped beads of perspiration off of her forehead.

"Sorry" She said, still trying to catch her breath… "It's just…" She turned her head down in an embarrassed style.

"Is something wrong?" Eddie asked, concerned for his sister. Ellie looked at him and gave him a hug.

"No, nothings wrong! In fact, this day could not get any better for me." She then stood up and started to walk around the clearing which the pile was in. She found a flower, picked it, and started to walk around holding the plant in her trunk and humming. Crash looked at Eddie.

"Yep, something's wrong with her." He said. Ellie looked over at her brothers and then sat down in front of them.

"Do you guys PROMISE not to freak?" She asked, putting down the flower.

"Why would we freak?" Eddie asked.

"And do you PROMISE not to act all disgusted?" She asked them.

"Why would we act disgusted?" Crash asked.

"Please, just… This is a special day for me; try not to make it bad." She told them, secretly throwing them hints.

"Why is it a special" Eddie started to say but Ellie swatted him on the head with her trunk. She then gave a big sigh and looked down at them.

"Manny asked me to be his mate." She exclaimed.

"HE DID?" Crash and Eddie said in unison.

"And… I said yes." She told them with an embarrassed tone in her voice.

"YOU DID?" Her brothers once again yelled in unison. Ellie smiled and nodded. Eddie immediately started dancing and cheering while Crash plopped down onto the ground and gave his best pouty look. Ellie rolled her eyes and picked him up with her trunk.

"Crash," She asked him "What's wrong sweetie?" He looked at her with small tears in his eyes.

"I don't wanna lose you!" He cried sadly then started bawling. Ellie was touched. She didn't realize that her brother cared for her this much. He never really acted like he enjoyed Manny that much. Ellie thought he was just being rude, but she now knew that he just missed spending time with her.

"Oh, Crash." She said as she gave him a firm hug. "You're not going to lose me! We're still going to stay with you guys. It's just going to be… different." Crash still wasn't satisfied.

"I like things the way they are!" He complained as Ellie put him down. Eddie sat down next to his brother.

"Don't think of it as losing a sister Crash, think of it as gaining a brother!" He said happily.

"Gaining a brother? What do you mean by that?" Crash asked, tears still in his eyes. Ellie smiled, she got what Eddie was saying.

"You're right Eddie!" She said happily, "Since Manny's going to be my mate now; it'll be like he's your big brother!" She then gave Eddie a wink of appreciation and he gave her thumbs up in return.

"But" Crash started… he was interrupted by Ellie.

"Crash, what did you do with Manny this morning?" She asked, smiling at the memory of Manny insisting that he spend some time with Crash, wanting to get to know him better. Crash immediately stopped crying and jumped up.

"IT WAS SOOO COOOL!" He said excitedly. "He showed me all these freaky flowers. There was one that looked all white and ghosty, but when you touched it it turned black! Then there was another one that looked like Mammoth heads. But the coolest one had a really fuzzy stem! It was so fun!" Ellie smiled then laughed. 'Manny sure knows how to entertain them' she thought to herself. 'He's going to make a great big brother.'

"I'm glad you two had so much fun together!" She said happily. "Now that he's going to be my mate, you boys can do that kind of stuff whenever you want! Maybe I can even join you sometimes! Would you like that?" Crash beamed.

"YEAH! That would be fun!" He said happily, then hugged Ellie's trunk. Ellie smiled.

"So you're ok with me and Manny being mates?" She asked her brothers curiously.

"SURE!" They said in unison. Ellie smiled, tears of joy starting once again to come into her eyes. 'I was wrong' she thought, 'this day just keeps getting even better.'

Manny happily walked through the woods, planning how he was going to tell his friends what had just happened. He decided to trick them into thinking he chickened out then explain what really happened. He found his two pals with a large pile of firewood, trying to decide amongst themselves how they would transport it to the cave.

"I'll carry it all!" Sid exclaimed as he flexed his muscle-less arms.

"You'll break your back." Diego claimed, "We could each carry one and take several trips."

"But I don't wanna do that!" Sid complained. Manny rolled his eyes then walked into the clearing.

"I'll carry them if you want." He said, smiling as he used his tusks like a hook to pick up the logs while Sid carried an armload of twigs that he found.

"You seem happy today." Diego said as he followed his pals. "Anything new?" Manny looked back at Diego.

"Well, I had a lot of fun with Crash this morning. I think I'm really starting to break through to him." He said, trying to postpone the good news until later.

"That's nice." Sid said happily as he started to spin one of his sticks like a baton, accidentally throwing it and hitting Diego on the head.

"OW!" Diego yelled. "Cut it out, those aren't for playing with!" He then turned to Manny "So did you speak to Ellie yet?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Manny said in his best sad voice.

"You chickened out didn't you?" Sid teased him.

"Did Diego tell you about the conversation we had this morning?" Manny asked irritation in his voice. Diego looked at the ground, slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry." He said, "I thought you could use an extra boost of confidence." Manny smirked.

"Oh yeah." He said half laughing, "He's definitely a boost of confidence." Sid didn't hear this comment so he just walked ahead, spinning another stick.

"Sorry about you chickening out buddy." Diego told Manny as they continued up the hill to the cave. Manny looked down at Diego with a sly look on his face.

"Funny." He said "I don't remember telling you that I chickened out. In fact, I don't remember chickening out at all!" He then gave Diego a huge smile to show what he meant. Diego's face was one of shock.

"You mean." He said excitedly.

"Mmm-Hmm" Manny nodded.

"And she said yes?" Diego could hardly stand it.

"Mmm-Hmm" Manny said excitedly. Diego immediately gave a huge smile.

"All right! I knew you could do it!" He said as they finally approached the cave. He then called to Sid who was heading over to where the Possums were. "Hey Sid! Come back here! We have to leave Ellie and her brothers alone today!" Sid turned back.

"WHY?" He asked.

"Because, she's not supposed to see any of us." Diego answered him.

"How come?" Sid asked as he walked up to his friends. Manny smiled.

"Because she's not supposed to see her mate-to-be or any of his close friends from the time until she answers to the time they do the ritual." He exclaimed.

"But we're not…" Sid started… then stopped immediately "OH MY GOODNESS!" He squealed as he started to cheer and dance around in circles. Manny laughed then used his trunk to pick his friend up.

"I appreciate the congratulations party Sid" he told him, "But it's starting to make me a bit dizzy." Sid happily nodded then Manny put him down.

"So what was her reaction like?" Diego asked his friend. Manny smiled.

"At first, she was shocked, and then she started to cry because she couldn't believe that someone like her was actually going to get a mate…" Diego smiled.

"Aww, HER not get a mate? Oh come on!" he teased. Manny smirked.

"I know, well, after a few minutes she calmed down… and then said yes." He smiled, satisfied with his story. Diego and Sid smiled.

"That's SOO romantic." Sid said as he fell off of the rock he was sitting on. Diego laughed.

"Yeah Sid, Maybe you can take some tips from him." All three friends laughed at this remark.

"Can you imagine?" Manny laughed, trying to catch his breath, "Me trying to play matchmaker with Sid?" This caused a whole new batch of laughter.

"Well, he technically is the one who paired you two up isn't he?" Diego asked.

"What do you mean?" Manny questioned.

"Well, he IS the one who convinced Ellie and her brothers to travel with us in the first place, so I guess you could say that this is all his doing." Diego exclaimed, as he was saying this Sid beamed. Manny smiled.

"You're right" he said, then walked over to Sid. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but thank you." Sid smiled. "I don't know how you knew she was perfect for me, but you did… and I'll never forget you for it. You're right; I guess she does complete me." Manny continued then gave Sid a sincere smile. Manny spent the next few hours getting the food for him and Ellie ready and choosing the perfect spot for the ritual. When he finally found the spot he was looking for, it was time to head back to the cave and get her….

Meanwhile, Ellie was with her brothers in her clearing, nervous and excited at the same time.

"10 minutes, 10 minutes… why couldn't it be 10 seconds? Can we go up there NOW?" She asked excitedly. Crash and Eddie sat on top of a rock, watching her.

"No." They both said in unison for the 25th time that day. Ellie was getting desperate; she REALLY wanted to see Manny.

"This is TORTURE!" She complained as she plopped down onto the ground and just sat there. "9 minutes, how long does it take us to get up there?"

"5 minutes." The boys said, once again in unison. Eddie sighed

"Sheesh Ellie, relax why don't ya! You'll get to see him, don't worry!" He said as he patted his impatient sister on her head. Ellie gave a big sigh.

"It's just, I love him so much… and I know that tonight is going to be wonderful… I didn't even get to spend more than 30 minutes with him!" She complained as she bonked her head against a tree. "7 minutes." She said as she once again lay down on the ground her legs spread out. Her brothers looked at each other sympathetically. Crash jumped down and walked up to Ellie.

"Cheer up sis." He told her, "In a few minutes we'll head up there ok? This reminds me of when I was in love with Rose…" He sighed, "She was so beautiful. But she chose someone else… It broke my heart. You are very lucky to have a guy like Manny, Ellie. I know that he'll never leave you." Ellie smiled at her brother and gave him a hug. Eddie jumped down and joined the group. After a bit, Crash jumped up.

"Time to go!" he said happily. Ellie immediately jumped up, grabbed her brothers, and ran for 4 of the five minutes… The last minute she spent walking and making sure that she looked nice.

"You look fine!" Eddie told her when they were about a yard away. When Ellie saw the clearing where the cave was, tears of joy once again formed in her eyes.

"I can't believe this is happening!" She said tearfully. Crash and Eddie rolled their eyes.

"GO!" They said eager to see their friends as well. Ellie took a big gulp and stepped into the clearing.

Once he saw her, Manny beamed. 'She's so perfect.' He told himself happily. Ellie was just standing there, at the entrance to the clearing, with a huge smile on her face. Crash and Eddie jumped off her back and ran over to Sid. The three 'children' as Manny and Ellie playfully called them ran off to play in an adjacent clearing.

"You look… beautiful." Manny said his voice full of joy, relief and excitement. Both his and Ellie's eyes were filling with tears of joy. Diego smiled.

"I'll just… leave you two alone." He then walked over to the clearing where Crash, Eddie and Sid had gone to. Once he left, Ellie and Manny immediately ran to each other and locked trunks.

"I missed you SO much!" She said happily as she nuzzled him.

"Me too." He said, doing the same. They stayed there for about 5 minutes, just happy in one another's presence.

"Come on." Manny said happily as he unlocked their trunks. "I chose the PERFECT spot for tonight." He led Ellie to a beautiful Cliffside about 7 minutes from the camp. The whole time they walked there, they would randomly sneak looks at each other, every once in a while catching each other and laughing or smiling.

Once they arrived at the site, Ellie was amazed. It was the most gorgeous place she had EVER seen. There were fireflies everywhere, the trees were gorgeous. The flower that looked like Mammoth heads was all around and there was a small waterfall to the right. She looked over at him and smiled.

"It's perfect." She said happily. They then ate dinner, during which they talked about their friends' reactions. Ellie was relieved when Manny agreed that he would enjoy outings with her and her brothers every once in a while. Then they watched the sunset, and once the sun had gone and the stars were out, they both looked at the stars, another thing that they enjoyed doing together. Ellie scooted over closer to Manny and locked trunks with him. They stayed like this for about 2 hours, trunks locked, just looking at the stars together. After those two hours, Ellie turned to Manny, still keeping her trunk locked with his.

"This has been the most wonderful night of my life, you know that?" She told him happily. "Thanks." She then gave him a soft nuzzle. Manny smiled.

"I thought you might want this." He told her as he unlocked their trunks, stood up, walked over to some of the flowers, picked them, walked over to Ellie and put them behind her ear. Ellie reached back and took them out so she could see them. Once she did, her eyes filled with tears of joy.

"Oh, Manny." She said happily. "They're beautiful!" She then put them back behind her ears and smiled at him yet again. "You know, no one has ever given me flowers before."

"Really?" Manny asked her as he gathered some wood then put it in a pile. "I find that quite hard to believe."

"It's true." Ellie told him. "Before you, no guy ever took interest in me. You were my first boyfriend and now…" her eyes started to overflow with tears of joy. "You're gonna be my mate." Manny smiled, sat down next to her and locked their trunks.

"I promise you Ellie." He told her, "I am going to make you as happy as I possibly can. I will never, ever, let you get hurt. If you are ever in any kind of danger, just trumpet, and I am going to be there immediately to help you." Ellie's heart overflowed with love as she smiled at him.

"That is the single most endearing thing anyone has ever said to me." She told him happily. Manny laughed.

"Boy, I'm just doing everything right tonight, aren't I?" He said smiling as he grabbed a nearby rock and propped it on a couple of sticks on his pile sticking up, he then put rocks around the sticks to keep them steady. After that he found a small rock, and hit it against the propped rock, the two rocks immediately made sparks which fell on the wood, creating a campfire. Ellie looked in wonder as Manny walked back over to her.

"How in the world did you do that?" She asked amazed. Manny smiled.

"Sid taught me, said it was his present for us becoming mates, isn't that nice?" Ellie beamed.

"That is so cool!" she said as Manny sat down. For the next 50 minutes they sat next to the fire, talking and laughing with each other. After that, they discussed their future. They decided to wait at least a year before trying for any children and to always stay with Sid, Diego, Crash and Eddie. They also decided that if either of them ever found any females of one of the other species in their 'family' they were to tell the other immediately and they would, together, decide what to do.

This conversation was drastically changed by Manny when he suddenly realized something.

"Ellie." He said, "Just 10 more minutes and its midnight… that's when the ritual is supposed to take place!" They both looked at each other smiling with tears in their eyes.

"I'm not sure how to do it." Ellie said worried. Manny smiled.

"It's not bad at all." He explained, "All you have to do is, at midnight exactly, lock trunks with me and then we'll trumpet in unison… and after that, we'll be mates. It's that simple." Ellie looked at him, still confused.

"How are we gonna trumpet in UNISON?" She asked. "Don't we need to know the pattern the other is going to use?"

"That's the cool part about it!" Manny said happily. "For some weird reason, the pair getting mated always ends up doing the exact same trumpet… every…single…time." Ellie smiled at him.

"I can't wait." She said excitedly. He smiled back.

"Me either." He then laughed a bit… "You know, let's make this trumpet REALLY loud so that our group hears it!" Ellie burst out laughing.

"Do you know how much that would freak them out?" She said.

"Exactly!" Manny smiled, "That's going to be the fun of it! Come on!"

"Sure, I don't see why not!" She said smiling. They spent the next few minutes, getting situated, sitting facing the moon which was off the edge of the cliff with their backs to the fire, their faces illuminated by the lights of the moon.

"In about 3 minutes, we're going to feel this really weird tingly feeling all over, like when your foot is asleep, but it's our bodies. At that moment we need to lock trunks, and trumpet as loud as we can so that everyone around us can know what is going on." Manny said as he looked on.

"Manny?" Ellie said.

"Yes?" He replied.

"I'm scared…" She said in an excited tone of voice.

"Me too." Manny smiled as he gave Ellie a gentle nuzzle. It was during this nuzzle that the feeling that Manny talked about came. The two Mammoths, as if they were hypnotized immediately locked trunks, and gave the loudest trumpet they could…. in unison. They remained in their spellbound state for about 2 minutes afterwards, and then once they were out they looked at each other, huge smiles on their faces.

"We're….mates." Ellie said, tears of happiness streaming down her face.

"Mates…" Manny repeated tears also flowing down his face as well. The two mates now immediately snuggled as close together as possible and nuzzled happily, tears still flowing down their faces. After a while, Ellie pulled back. Manny looked at her with love in his eyes, even with her face all wet from the tears, she was still the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

"Ellie." He told her. "I love you so much… I am just so happy to be here with you right now. You're so beautiful. Even now, with tear stains on your fur… you're gorgeous. I just… wanted you to know that." Ellie looked at him with as much love in her eyes as possible and nuzzled him once again.

"Oh, Manny." She told him. "I love you SO much. You can't even begin to imagine. This has been the best day of my life. Every time we lock trunks… I feel this weird tingly feeling in my heart… I dunno what it is, but I love it. I'm feeling it right now actually." She said smiling. Manny's face changed to one of confusion.

"I feel it too! The weird thing is, I never felt it with Millie… only you." His face immediately came into one of discovery… "Ellie!" He said excitedly… "My parents were true loves, which is why they died so close to each other. I remember when I was little asking my dad how he knew they were true loves and he said that usually when you lock trunks with someone, you don't feel anything supernatural. But when you're true loves and you lock trunks… then you feel this amazing tingling sensation in your heart. Ellie… that's what we're feeling, we're true loves!" New streams of tears fell down their cheeks as they locked their trunks even tighter and just absorbed each other's presence. After a while, the fire went out.

"We should probably go to sleep now." Ellie said sleepily as she yawned. Manny yawned as well.

"Yeah, we probably should." He said, and then looked down at her. "I love you."

"I love you too." She smiled back up at him. They then fell asleep, trunks still locked, looking forward to the new life ahead of them. Both of their hearts were full, and both were truly happy. They were in fact true loves, and now that they were mates… their souls were connected, and because of this simple fact, they would never, ever, be lonely again.

The End

Wow, what a story huh? Hey! I almost beat my friend's record of 14 pages (I have 12) HI MELISSA! YOU'RE STILL NUMBER ONE! Either way… This chapter took me 2 count them 2 days to complete, so I hope you like it! This ends a 3 month period of my life… when I was preparing for Ice Age 2… and now… I don't know what to do! cries Oh well, I'll find something!

Also, those flowers that I mentioned are ALL REAL! The white one that DOES turn black is called a "Corpse Plant" or "Indian Pipe" The one that looks like Mammoth heads is called (Surprise Surprise) "Elephant Heads" and the one that is all furry is called a "Western Pasqueflower" I thought it might be fun to share some Botany with you guys today! (That's the study of plants!)

Another thing, I have officially named myself the leader of the "Wooly Wonders" which is my own personal Manny/Ellie fan club. Let me know if you want to be a member! I'd be honored to have you on the team! Thank you; once again for reading this story, I am extremely proud of it as it is my first BIG project for let me know how you liked this chapter… I'm going to leave you with a quote from the movie….

"Ellie, I don't want us to be together because we _have _to, I want us to be together because we _want_ to. And I want to be with you, Ellie… so what do you say?"

Manny- Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

Goodbye Everyone.

Taffyabc- Funkywatermelon's Assistant.


End file.
